On the Nature of Nobodies
by Chajiko
Summary: A oneshot including Dilan, Braig and briefly, Even, preOrgXIII.  Pedantic and scholarly with an eyepatch? Rating for brief mention of blood.  Please pardon the formatting issues!


_**A/N :**_ _Please don't give up before you reach the bottom! The bit that really makes it a fanfic is down there, and the rest is just self-indulgence, if I can admit to so much. Please leave me a constructive review--it really means alot to me. Thanks_

**On the Nature of Nobodies:**

The by-product of the violent release of energy associated with the change of a particular kind of normal corporeal form, also known commonly as a "Nobody," into a Heartless is a phenomenon unprecedented within the known worlds. It is a creature possessing both a physical body and sentient intelligence, though it lacks all other characteristics of the major races. In an attempt to understand these beings and pick the truth from the lies, I sought the places where the Heartless congregate, in the hopes of witnessing the rare event that would result in the birth of a Nobody.

My vigilance was fruitless for many weeks, but at last my patience was rewarded by the event I had hoped for. However, it would seem that there was more to the different natures of Nobodies than I had realized, for what I was confronted with was not a thinking and intelligent being, but a creature as mindless and hungry as the Heartless themselves. I retreated and began my search again.

At last I found what I sought: a young man, appearing in all outward sense to be a normal human being, yet lacking those crucial things that we have always considered to separate us from the beasts. I was seeking the answers to three specific questions, among others, and it took a little persuasion to convince him to cooperate for the sake of understanding. I, needless to say, prevailed in the end.

The thing that I desired most specifically to know was whether or not these creatures possess a Heart as we would define it, in a literal rather than a figurative sense. I was very much gratified to find, as my theories had postulated, that the specimen had neither pulse nor heartbeat. The most common misconception concerning Nobodies, however, is the assumption that because they do not possess a heart, they therefore do not bleed and cannot die of blood loss. This, however, is not the case. The specimen bled quite freely when pricked, though without the pulsing drive one would have expected with the action of cardiac muscle behind it. When questioned on the nature of a heart in the more figurative sense, the results were predictably inconclusive.

The results of my second examination were as amorphous and inconclusive as the first had been as far as the presence of a "Heart" was concerned. Unfortunately, there is no known test in modern science to indicate the presence or absence of a soul, and there is only so much hard data anthropology can provide a literal-minded scientist. However, if I were forced to draw a decisive conclusion, it would be that these beings lack a soul as well as a heart. The Nobody, as I have stated above, is a rare by-product of the separation of heart and body that produces the common Heartless, and is therefore not attached to either. To be fair, I must state that it is currently not known at what point, or if at all, the soul and the Heart are separated. If the body and the heart are once again united, they can become a whole without the addition of the Nobody, which implies that the soul, Heart and Body encompass all that is needed to make up a human. If a Nobody happens across his Other, as this re-united heart, soul and body are called, it may be absorbed back into the being of the Other, leaving no trace of the projected personality or nature of the Nobody itself.It is unknown whether or not the nature of the Nobody reflects the nature of the Other, as there are no known examples of an Other with a known Nobody, and vice versa.

The third was the most difficult and undefined of my series of hypotheses, and it was with great reluctance that I was forced, once again, to fall back upon the research methods of the anthropologist to satisfy my questions. In every observed case, when a Nobody of any kind has suffered physical trauma beyond the capacity of the physical body to bear, the Nobody begins to dissolve and eventually dissipates entirely, leaving no physical remains behind it. Attempts have been made to contain and analyze the escaping fragments however there has been, to date, not a single successful analysis performed.It is unknown whether or not the body of a Nobody is made up of something truly physical or if it is some sort of reflection, formed of the energy released when an especially strong Heart is separated from its body. It was with this in mind that I examined the specimen concerning the fate of the consciousness of a Nobody. It is a commonly held belief that, if there is truly anything of actual substance to the existence of a Nobody, once released from the complex energy bonds that held it in a separate form, it must return to the Other of which it was originally a part. If there is now substance, however, then the reflected consciousness will simply dissolve along with the bodily manifestation. The specimen was singularly unhelpful on this particular subject, and I have made up my mind that I will have to pursue this line of inquiry elsewhere.

_--From "Discourses on the Worlds"_

"Wordy little nutball, isn't he?"

Braig tossed the report back onto the desk. The pages scattered aimlessly over the top of the papers Dilan was reading, and he gave his friend an exasperated look.

"At least Even's not sitting on my desk messing up my charts when he's supposed to be working."

Braig drummed his heels against the side of the desk and grinned like a wolf. He gave Dilan a speculative glace out of his good eye, but the other was studiously avoiding his gaze.

"You know, I wonder what he's working on right now. Maybe we should go…I dunno, be welcoming or something.Maybe we could help him with his newest control?"

Dilan made a sound that was somewhere between a snort and a laugh.

"Give me another hour and you're on."


End file.
